{"id":5443,"date":"2020-12-31T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T07:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jshox.com\/jay\/?p=5443"},"modified":"2025-11-06T12:45:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T20:45:36","slug":"2020-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jshox.com\/jay\/2020\/12\/31\/2020-december\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 – December"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

December at last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting this year I would have never thought that I would be working from home for the last 9 months to end the year. Also would not have guessed about a global pandemic either. Or that we would have spiritual trauma from our experience with the church, or that we wouldn’t have gone to church in months by the time we were in December. I wouldn’t have guessed any of it. Not even that we would get pregnant and have a third baby on the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of COVID we have been very strict the last few months. Even my parents before they visit have to quarantine for at least 2 weeks (with no going in stores, or anything). We are taking every precaution we can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hospitalizations are up to 100k and we keep breaking through the records. It seems like the birth of our baby (slated to be the beginning of January sometime) will also be close to the PEAK of all the madness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On to happier news: We visited the Troutdale and downtown Portland trees (the one downtown is always a sight to see).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read this article<\/a>. Chris Willis has been hiding these Santas around town for years, we did the search this year and found them. He even took the time to mask them all up! I took a photo of my warm coffee and the Christmas lights we put up in the garage (including the lights behind the British flag which is up year-round). Elijah and Arabella were being super cute and wanted to showcase Paddington. If you notice her bangs? She cut her hair without telling us her plans to do so. The wifey may have freaked out just a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See the star? Well, here is something I haven’t mentioned yet: Each time we go to the doctor I have to wait in the car for Maryia. Only one other person is allowed in the room with her and we go over that limit with the kids. I drive over the Portland Providence building, go to the top level of the parking garage and watch the sky. This whole thing has been so different than any other birth. Each one was different, honestly. Arabella had the same person throughout, we changed doctors for Elijah since we were further south in the city (in Arizona) and with this baby, we changed doctors after the last one told us that we lost the baby. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember when I talked before about our Christmas lights vs our Christmas light goals? See below for a picture of our goal. Not sure it will ever happen, especially considering you would need to store everything that is showing, but in our mind it is what we would want to have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have taken part in the Healthy Oregon Project. I think it’s pretty cool (read about it here)<\/a>. On the website, they explain<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Participants donate their saliva sample via our HOP Kits mailed to their Oregon address. Participants receive their inherited genetic risk screening results, which looks for DNA mutations that are known to increase risk for cancer or other diseases. The DNA mutations we are screening for are ones that medical doctors have concluded that there are effective ways to prevent that cancer risk or catch it early when it is more easily treated.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a big thing with OHSU, the Univerity of Oregon, Providence, Keiser Permanente, and others who have joined together to make it possible. For free too! the only requirement is that you reside in Oregon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was cold and the Gorge got some snow so we took a trip and came across the Rowena Viewpoint (commercials and other photography have been filmed here due to the unique curve in the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found a local church to go to the Christmas Eve service. East Hill handed out boxes to everyone and provided a candle for everyone in the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A windstorm pushed sideways the fence in the backyard. I’ll have to let the neighbor know about that but do not expect it to be fixed during Christmas and the New Year. At least it didn’t knock it over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the last day of the year, we had another baby checkup. So I took a nice photo of the roof again (yes I included the star too). We welcome 2021! As is typical, we watched the ball drop – prerecorded from Times Square (picture is mere seconds away from the drop).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is to a new year, with a new baby!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

just Pray<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

note: this post was published on 09\/21\/22 but moved the publish date back to the end of December 2020 to keep chronological order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

December at last. Starting this year I would have never thought that I would be working from home for the last 9 months to end the year. Also would not have guessed about a global pandemic either. Or that we would have spiritual trauma from our experience with the church, or that we wouldn’t have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jshox.com\/jay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/dec7santa.jpg?fit=1241%2C931&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":735,"url":"https:\/\/jshox.com\/jay\/2008\/09\/07\/735\/","url_meta":{"origin":5443,"position":0},"title":"heytook a break yesterday, but\u2026","author":"me@jshox.com","date":"September 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"heytook a break yesterday, but I'm back with more today :)Times Square. 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More shake-ups are on the way. We learned that our pastor was stepping down as lead pastor for Abundant Life Church. In no uncertain terms, he was to stop his preaching for a few months, and stop all social\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jshox.com\/jay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/june26stay.jpg?fit=1047%2C931&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jshox.com\/jay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/june26stay.jpg?fit=1047%2C931&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jshox.com\/jay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/june26stay.jpg?fit=1047%2C931&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jshox.com\/jay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/june26stay.jpg?fit=1047%2C931&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4593,"url":"https:\/\/jshox.com\/jay\/2019\/12\/31\/2019-december-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5443,"position":3},"title":"2019 – December part 2","author":"me@jshox.com","date":"December 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Can you believe we are halfway through December? 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